this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
562 points (98.1% liked)

News

23664 readers
3650 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

According to a National Park Service news release, the 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the desert ground. The result: third-degree burns.

"The skin was melted off his foot," said Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce. "The ground can be much hotter — 170, 180 [degrees]. Sometimes up into the 200 range."

Unable to get out on his own and in extreme pain, the man and his family recruited other park visitors to help; together, the group carried him to the sand dunes parking lot, where park rangers assessed his injuries.

Though they wanted a helicopter to fly him out, helicopters can't generate enough lift to fly in the heat-thinned air over the hottest parts of Death Valley, officials said. So park rangers summoned an ambulance that took him to higher ground, where it was a cooler 109 degrees and he could then be flown out.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] nednobbins@lemm.ee 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

People chronically underestimate nature.

They see some beautiful desert, a peaceful sea, or an idyllic mountain and assume that nothing so pretty could possible hurt you.

Forget about cute animals that are actually dangerous, any of the above can secretly store so much energy that humans are completely insignificant gnats, in comparison.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

We've become spoiled by how much we've bent nature to accommodate us. We're more fragile than we think.

[–] Naz@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I went on "a hike" with "a friend" (big quotation marks here because they're no longer a friend obviously) that quickly turned into an unanchored free climb with no way back down with one another friend who was baked.

Our chance of significant injury or death was 90% at 2200 feet up, and we managed to get out of the climb and back down without so much as a twisted ankle. A literal fucking miracle.

When we went for food later, all I could talk about was how close we were to death, and how I'm never doing that again, but they seemed completely unfazed.

My best assumption? Brain worms.

Toxoplasmosis Gondii destroys the fear impulse in humans and causes them to engage in increasingly risky behavior, until it eventually kills them. It's how the parasite procreates in mice (leading them to predators and wild cats).

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Some people are just very bad at risk assessment. I'm glad you survived!

[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Others are bad at risk assessment by over estimating risk. They are boring buzzkills.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Much better to overestimate risk than underestimate it when the risk is death!

[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (2 children)

But how worth living is a life overly guarded?

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

There's a big range between "never takes any risks" and "takes stupid pointless risks."

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 2 points 5 months ago

Is "not wearing flip flops in death valley" or "not climbing 200ft up a tree really OVERLY guarded, though? 🤔